The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

The entitlement society in action

Serendipitously, just after I posted my last article dealing with emergency preparations and the necessity to keep reserve stocks that would allow you to leave as well as remain in your home, I found this essay at The Lonely Libertarian. It's a perfect illustration of the entitlement society in action, and the 'ghetto mentality' that's developed in so many of our inner cities. She concludes:

So this was probably the first time I truly got a taste of how bad it's gotten, how far society has slipped, how poisoned the populace has become with entitlements. Some people, out of the goodness of their hearts, tried to do something nice for some people who didn't appreciate it in the least. Things are rapidly getting worse, but I'm ready.

That, right there, is a prime example of why you need to be prepared to 'get out of Dodge' if necessary. If welfare benefits are interrupted for any length of time, or a natural disaster disrupts the normal network supporting such people, they're going to come looking for anyone and anything that can satisfy their needs. They can, and do, and will regard themselves as entitled to take what they need, even if it's your property; and they have no objection to getting physical and 'in-your-face' about it, up to and including the use of whatever violence they deem necessary to get what they want.

If you defend your home and emergency supplies against them, the odds are extremely high that you'll have to employ force to do so - perhaps lethal force. In today's politically correct society, I can almost guarantee that you'll be arrested for doing so, and sit in jail for weeks or months while you work to clear your name. If a bunch of looters get together and agree on their story, there'll be multiple 'witnesses' to perjure themselves on a stack of Bibles ten feet tall that you yelled racist epithets at them and shot at them for no reason at all - "we wuz just walkin' past on our way to the church!" Even if the cops believe you, it's not their decision whether you go home or not - it's the District Attorney's call. He or she is going to be under immense political pressure to do whatever it takes to pacify the mob. Guess who's going to get the short end of the stick under such circumstances? Go look in the mirror. That's who.

I urge you to re-read my 'lessons learned' post after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. You'll find more examples of that mentality there. It's real, and it's in almost every city and town today. If you have to face down people of that mentality, you will end up losing, no matter whether you survive or not. Far better, I think, to either be somewhere they're not, right from the get-go, or move yourself out of their way before you get shafted. YMMV, of course . . . but I know what I'll be doing, if time and circumstances permit. If they don't, I'll just have to follow Theodore Roosevelt's advice and "do what I can, with what I have, where I am".

10 comments:

I'm a missionary and as such find myself very torn on the issue. I read LL's post and the cynical side of me that's seen people at their worst in the third world went 'yep, not surprised.' Another side then goes through biblical commands about helping the helpless and so on. And a third side looks at myself and my family as we travel about the countryside on furlough, asking for help from family (somewhere to stay for a week, usually).

So I'm going to chew on all this a while and hopefully come up with something profound to say instead of just venting feelings.

Broher Pilot,What I'm coming to realize is that the more organized, depersonalized the charitable event, they easier it is for some people to slip into bad behavior. One person to another person, you get a connection and understanding of each other. The person giving "sees" the person receiving, and vice versa. There's appreciation on both sides. Get into large, impersonal giveaways where the donors (unlike the Salvation Army lady) don't get to meet and understand the recipients. And the recipients don't see the people trying to help. It becomes a taking, rather than a giving. And when you get to government programs that become completely depersonalized, it's easier still to take it for granted. I'll still help people, but I'll choose to do it person to person.

Should push come to shove, Angus, unfortunately, has it exactly right. The entitlement attitude is well entrenched, and will be at the root of problems, at least for a couple months after the festivities begin.

If an individual, or a group, is not of you and yours, they will pose a threat to safety, security and life, and that threat will probably be resolved several hundred meters out. That sentence should be read carefully, for it applies to any and all threats.

I suspect by 90 days in, two completely separate factions will have developed: Those who do not need, nor want any sort of government "assistance" and will resoundingly reject any attempts of government to engage in it with them, and those who are completely dependent on such assistance, or at least however many survive from that group.

To your point, Peter, about "bugging out," I do not want to be one of the people wandering about the countryside (or the city and its environs) in that climate. It will be too unhealthy.

They are far from helpless, and it's the "help the poor things" attitude that has driven them to the sorry state they are in.

Peter, it seems that segregation will re enter our land, this time as a result of the general realization that there are some groups in our society that no one really can live with safely. There is no reason that we should have to plan to get away from our homes, or to fight for them with lethal force, due to the expected criminal acts of certain of our neighbors. No one should have to live like that.

There are some fairly inexpensive Picatinny rail mounted video systems, as long as you don't mind semi-low resolution, say about like a standard analog security camera. IIRC, Sportsman's Guide was having a sale...

FWIW, most of those types of recorders also work really well with standard near-IR illumination too.Just a thought.

Something happened a year or so ago here in GA. There was a5 hour disconnect where the EBT cards in a county near me (Clayton County) and the local people were upset (Who gonna feed me chirren) was the must used phrase on the local media. This was after 5 hours. Imagine several days or longer...they live for the here and now...to them the future..is the future. So they don't plan ahead. I would love to move farther away but unfortunately I work at the airport and distance becomes a problem.

Not sure it's profound, but... Hiswiserangel talked about helping "person to person". The thought that occurs to me is that person to person is the only way one can really tell if help is needed. The golden rule still applies, and the lessons of the good Samaritan. But as it's been pointed out: "if you can afford tattoos and cable tv you don't need food stamps or welfare." If a person doesn't need help, don't help them, and for God's sake, don't force the help on them. The most helpful thing we can do is STOP helping....those who don't need the help because in such a case, help is counterproductive. By all means we should help those who need it without regard to race color creed gender political party or any other difference. But when "help" produces what LL saw in WalMart, it's not help any more.